I bought some red lentils a long time ago and I kept looking at them and thinking what could I do with them. I found this interesting recipe here and I decided to try it yesterday. It was delicious, and the red lentils turn yellow after they are cooked!

We like to have lunch at the Whole Foods close to our house on Sundays: it used to be a Wild Oats and it still has that neighborhood kind of feeling to it. They recently added a variety of grains to the salad bar which is a very attractive feature. Black lentils and red quinoa came up as a combination of flavors that I got addicted to. I had some leftover red quinoa from the Tabbouleh I made last Sunday, so I decided to make this dish which turned out really good. It is very versatile. You can complement it with some braised dark greens, a protein, such as fish, or avocado slices. You can also drain the lentils and use them as part of a salad.

Middle Eastern cuisine is a great fit for this diet (should we still call this a diet? It’s been sooo delicious!): their main staples are grains, spices, herbs and lamb. This lentil soup is comforting and delicious. The flavors are intense and the food, fulfilling.

The only change I made to the original recipe is that I reduced the amount of olive oil to 1/3 and used carrots, parsnip and squash instead of potatoes. See the original recipe here. This recipe yields to a lot of soup. You may want to reduce the recipe to half but then you will have a problem when blending the cilantro and garlic in the food processor: you won’t have enough. I had to use some water as I didn’t want to use 1/4 cup of olive oil.